BSOD in Boot Camp

[tcdiver7]

It seems that after I installed Parallels v3.0 (build 4560), I can't boot natively to my Windows XP Boot Camp partition. Windows blue screens on me every time when I try to boot from the Boot Camp partition. Windows XP runs in Parallels, though.

And it's a weird BSOD. Windows boots normally and everything looks fine. But within about the time it takes to open an application and start working, *bam*, BSOD. This happens every time I restart my Mac from the Boot Camp partition. Every time.

Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix it without completely reinstalling Windows?

[neongrau]

ouch i just realized i have the same problem with my boot camped vista!

in parallels it boots up. but booting natively crashes / causes a restart. 2nd time it brings the option to try last known good config or safe mode, but nothing works except of booting via parallels!?!


HELP!!!

[tcdiver7]

I can't help but think this has something to do with the files that Parallels alters. I just don't know what those files are and how to fix them. I also can't afford to spend a few days rebuilding my Windows installation at the moment.

Any help from the Parallels folks on this?

[dauphin]

I believe I'm experiencing the same thing. Booting into Windows natively presents a BSOD maybe 20 seconds after reaching the Windows login screen. If I do nothing but wait at the login screen I get this fatal error. If I choose to login to my standard user account, I can watch as new hardware devices get recognized until it barfs out while Apple keyboard is being done. I don't know if this is actually helpful information, though.

As for when the problem started: Two things happened for me within a day's time-- I upgraded to Parallels 3.0 4124 and I installed BootCamp drivers 1.3. As many know, a Parallels 4128 came out very shortly after, apparently to fix some problems that Apple's release caused. Since then I too have been unable to boot directly into Windows on my MacBookPro, yet have no trouble running Parallels on my Boot Camp partition. (I can also boot Fusion with my Boot Camp partition, FWIW.) My best clue was when I hit F8 while Windows was booting and selected the option that would not force a restart on crash, which finally enabled me to read the error message on the BSOD. The important part said "BAD_POOL_HEADER." There've been a few posts, both on Parallels forum and elsewhere about handling these, but so far nothing's worked for me. One person had a very specific set of Registry entries he recommended deleting (did not help). Other people thought it might have something to do with having USB peripherals plugged in, like a Mighty Mouse, so I made sure to unplug all peripherals: no dice. I've tried booting with Safe Mode which, unlike with a regular boot, doesn't even get me to the Login screen. I've tried 'chkdsk' and defragmenting the disk.

I would love to get a detailed step-by-step for how to fix this, short of blowing away my partition and starting all over.

[arnewman]

I'm having the same problems. Just updated to build 5060...then updated Parallels Tools on my Boot Camp partition. Works OK...

Then, after booting directly to Boot Camp, I log in, everything gets started up, and just when I'm ready to work, BSOD...

Help!!!

[tcdiver7]

I'm using build 4560 of Parallels. Yesterday, rebooted into windows via Boot Camp updated the Boot Camp drivers to v1.4 - they were just released by Apple.

I was stunned to see that it worked.

So, for right now, build 4560 and Boot Camp v1.4 seem to be coexisting.

Anyone else try installing BC v1.4?

[arnewman]

Things got quiet in this thread...and I still can't use Boot Camp. Anyone hear anything?

Thanks!

[tcdiver7]

So far, things are still working for me with Parallels build 4560 and Boot Camp v 1.4.

At least with Windows XP. I haven't yet tried it with Vista, mostly because I haven't seen any reason to use Vista.

[jChristopher]

Hi. Same problem here. It's been an on-going problem. I got Parallels to run smoothly on BootCamp some number of versions ago (probably just after 2.0 came out?)...but the next update (either for Parallels or BootCamp drivers) broke it again, and it still goes BSOD with the BAD_POOL_HEADER error message. At the moment, I'm running Parallels 3.0.4560. BootCamp has the 1.4 drivers.

I'd love some resolution to this problem.

[tcdiver7]

Since there are only about a million things that can cause a Windows BSOD, I'm betting this problem has multiple causes - especially if installing the newest Parallels (and its tools) and Boot Camp v1.4 doesn't fix it for everyone.

I'm just happy that my setup is currently working with build 4560 and Boot Camp v1.4.

For those that are still having problems, has anyone contacted Parallels support?

[RealityExplorer]

Unfortunately Parallels seems to simply be silent in some threads, likely since they don't know how to fix the problem yet.. Rational customer service at least admit that and provided some sort of interaction vs. hiding.

I've posted in a different thread about difficulty booting from bootcamp after using it inside parallels. The first step should be to try booting from the windows install disk and asking it to repair the installation, for some that has worked.. (though for others like me it won't find any errors to fix even though the boot dies, after in safemode boot showing crcdisk.sys as being the last thing its loaded)

For any rational company, posting here *should* be reaching parallels support. ie, its more efficient to solve the problem for N users than for 1 user.. Its even more efficient to keep a more updated knowledge base and list of known issues being worked on, and workarounds, and suggestions for user tactics to find problems, etc..

Any posts here indicate a *much* larger group of people with the problem who haven't posted here and may not contact Parallels but will simply not buy the product.. and will not tell others to buy it, hurting the free "viral" marketing potential and their bottom line. Any support staff that reads this and thinks "but we don't have enough people to respond.. "should be telling their manager, or in case word hasn't spread upward through poor manager, their managers manager or execs (anonymously if scared of consequences), etc, that poor customer service hurts the bottom line more than it would cost to do it more rationally..

[tcdiver7]

I'd have to disagree with you on a few points.

First, posting here - a user's forum - doesn't constitute a request for support. Nor should it. I'd rather the folks at Parallels spend their time resolving issues than posting in forums. This is a place for users to help users. If you want support, contact Parallels through official channels.

Second, I wouldn't say that posts indicate a larger group of people. The truth is that we don't know how many people are experiencing a problem. This is especially true because folks who aren't having issues rarely post "Everything's great!" to a forum.

Except me, of course. Everything's working great with build 4560 and Boot Camp v1.4 for me. Which is why I asked if the people with that combination of versions had contacted Parallels - I'd love to know the troubleshooting steps Parallels ran them through.

[RealityExplorer]

I'd have to disagree with you on a few points.

First, posting here - a user's forum - doesn't constitute a request for support. Nor should it. I'd rather the folks at Parallels spend their time resolving issues than posting in forums.
The problem with that theory is that any competently run business better be concerned about the impression users have of the company and of customer service. If a user posts a reply before they read it... eg within a few hours.. fine.. otherwise they should respond. If N people have a problem and read a forum to find an answer, where N > 1.. then its more efficient to address the problem once in a public response to a post by one user as a higher priority than answering 1 support email.. rather than than have the readers of the forum instead need to send N support emails (unfortunately there are alot of clueless managers out there so some folks become accustomed to clueless companies who ignore this).

To be efficient a company should have canned replies for the various problems and canned debugging suggestions to pass onto users which should be in an updated knowledge base and posted here for any who don't find the info there or who have a new problem.

A company with a clue would actually using software to track down references to Parallels elsewhere on the web and responding to issues wherever appropriate. There are certain issues that are user specific and don't need a response form parallels.. but I'm assuming they simply don't have the budget available to respond to users. I'd question the competence of any manager or executive who didn't "get" the net enough to understand the impact of customer service and image on the bottom line via viral spread.. could likely find relevant articles on the online publications of the Harvard Business School about decent customer service. I'd suspect the company was succeeding despite that manager.. rather than because of.. The fact that other companies make the same mistake doesn't mean they should copy the mistakes rather than try to do better... If anything they should check what the companies with reputations for poor customer service are doing vs. the ones with good reputations..


Second, I wouldn't say that posts indicate a larger group of people. The truth is that we don't know how many people are experiencing a problem.
There is alot of research out there supporting what should seem obvious.. that most people don't post to any sort of forums in whatever context.. Its theoretically possible that the only people that have problem X post to the forum... but doubtful... That should be a risk no rational software development company should take re: assuming no one one else has a problem commented on here.. A competently managed business wouldn't assume nything other than the odds are good that there are alot more people having a problem than bother posting to the forum... eg, it sounds like from posts Parallels has made that memory allocation is hosed for all Macs with more than 4 gig of RAM.. which may not be as common as lesser amounts of memory but seems likely a fair number of folks with that much memory are early adopters and have some $ to spend and may consider Parallels or VMware.

[johnv]

Hi. Same problem here. It's been an on-going problem. I got Parallels to run smoothly on BootCamp some number of versions ago (probably just after 2.0 came out?)...but the next update (either for Parallels or BootCamp drivers) broke it again, and it still goes BSOD with the BAD_POOL_HEADER error message. At the moment, I'm running Parallels 3.0.4560. BootCamp has the 1.4 drivers.

I'd love some resolution to this problem.

Hello!

Please try this solution:
Windows crashes - BSOD - Bad Pool Header error message.
http://kb.parallels.com/entry/64/518/ (http://kb.parallels.com/entry/64/518/)
Best regards,
John

[arnewman]

John - Thanks for the reference to the KB article. It appears, however, that the article provides a solution for a BSOD occurring INSIDE Parallels. The problem that I and others appear to be having is a BSOD when booting natively into Boot Camp - this solution won't work for that, will it?

By the way, it appears that uninstalling Parallels Tools (within Parallels) will then allow the native Boot Camp to work properly...not ideal, but at least I'm functional.

Also tried this with beta2 today - still have same problems. So, any other suggestions?

Thanks!

[arnewman]

Bumping once again - 4 days since last post...any new thoughts here?

Thanks!

[scottreder]

Same problem here on a 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro running OS X 10.4.10 and Windows Vista with the Boot Camp 1.4 Beta drivers.

I was running Vista fine via Boot Camp after upgrading to the 1.4 beta drivers. When I went to boot up via Parallels, I got the "Installing Parallels Tools" splash screen as I did everytime I booted (strange). Upon a login attempt in Vista, I was asked to reactivate. I didn't have time to call Microsoft, so I shut down the VM and attempted to boot via Boot Camp again. This now results in a BSOD every time at the same point that others have referenced.

Not sure if it's Boot Camp drivers or Parallels, but my Vista installation is down for the count from a Boot Camp perspective.

--Scott Reder

[mindyk]

I'm beyond frustrated - I redid everything today andIi'm back to the bsod in my native boot camp (like everyone else, Vista runs fine in parallels - go figure). I'm not sure where the problem started, but I'd bet money on an issue between Bootcamp 1.4 and the newest version of Parallels.

I tried to put in a support request at parallels.com, but it didn't like my activation key, even though I copy/pasted it direct from the email they sent me. I'm downloading a VMWare trial tonight. I found a support link on the nova site, and now I only have to wait 3 DAYS to hear back from them.

Hopefully, I can get my money back. I think they took their app out of beta status a bit too soon.

[scottreder]

To fix Boot Camp, I re-installed Vista. It worked fine, e.g. activation with Microsoft went through just fine, the 1.4 Boot Camp driver install worked, etc. All is back to normal for the Boot Camp side of things, although it was a lot of work to have to reinstall.

I won't be booting up the Boot Camp partition with Parallels again until I know for sure that Parallels has fixed the problem. This is a bummer given that this is what I bought Parallels to do...

--Scott

[arnewman]

As soon as I installed Parallels Tools on the boot camp partition and then rebooted into boot camp, got right back to the BSOD after log in. Uninstalling the tools now...Grrr...

[mindyk]

See my previous post for the problems I was having (same as everyone else) ... Here's how it was resolved.

1. I couldn't log in through the parallels support forum late last night because it didn't like my activation key, so I used the pre-sales form to request support. I am happy to report that by the time I got to work this morning, a reply was waiting in my inbox. The long and short of this problem was perhaps related to the process they put me through to obtain my free upgrade from version 2. They sent me a new download link and a new key.

2. While reinstalling my BSOD native Vista load for the 4th time, a realization hit me from out of the blue. I am a PC user and support person by trade, and just got my Macbook Pro a month or so ago. When I first burned my drivers disk from BootCamp, I was running BC 1.3. I first had problems with the hal.dll file in an earlier version of Parallels, so I upgraded my Parallels to the latest build, and upgraded BC to version 1.4 (cuz newer is always better, right?!?). Next I reinstalled Vista in my BC partition before discovering there are all kinds of fixes for that HAL.dll problem. The thing is, when I upgraded my BC to version 1.4, I never realized that the earlier 1.3 driver disk shouldn't be used with 1.4 (this where I think the installer should shout to the user -"wrong driver disk, stupid!"). I was trying to cut a corner an not burn another driver disk after installing the 1.4 BC. I'm fairly certain that using the 1.3 version on the Vista side with the 1.4 BC was likely the the cause of my subsequent bsods. I blame this oversight on the fact that when you dual boot a Windows system, you don't need "drivers" to access the other OS in the secondary partition, therefore it never occurred to me that I had to update BC "drivers" on the Windows side when I upgraded BC on the Mac side.

So long story short (things I've learned):

1. Parallels support seems to be very responsive to email support requests - use the system before flying off the handle about them not addressing issues. It doesn't look to me like they monitor these forums much at all - I think they should, but that's another issue.

2. If you are already getting native Windows BSODs, you will probably need to reload Vista. Just be darn sure you use the drivers for the version of BC you have on your Mac. If your virtual Vista will load in Parallels, you might try loading the right BC drivers from inside the working virtual machine. I have no idea if this will work or not, but it might be worth a shot.

3. When Parallels tools is installing and tells you to wait until it reboots your virtual machine, sit on your hands or go in the other room until its done. It's always my desire to speed up the process by clicking in "locate my driver" boxes during the process, but that only gave me grief (the originating hal.dll errors, I think were caused by this). The only things you should be clicking on are the "Install Parallels tools" dialog, the red driver verification warnings and the boxes regarding your network security options (home, work, public) when all is said and done. Don't tell it to search for your drivers if Windows prompts you. Parallels will take care of it.

4. I have my Vista key memorized (sigh!)

[bulletproof]

See my comments about this issue here (http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=16044). It will resolve your BSOD issues (...the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM and Stop Error 0x0000007b), but I think Parallels should come up with a solution that avoids this issue altogether.